More Americans Making the Grade

W A S H I N G T O N, Sept. 15 -- More than 83 percent of Americans age 25 andolder graduated from high school, and over 25 percent have at leasta college degree — both record highs according to new Census Bureaustatistics.

In March 1999, 83.4 percent of Americans 25 and older had highschool diplomas, up from 24.5 percent in 1940, the earliest recordsavailable, and 77.6 percent in 1990, Census data being releasedtoday shows. The percentage of people within the same age groupwith a bachelor’s degree increased to 25.2 percent, from 4.6percent in 1940 and 21.3 percent 10 years ago.

“Given the very large differences in education between youngerand older age groups, the attainment level of the total populationwill continue to rise for some time as younger, more-educated agegroups replace older, less-educated ones,” Census analyst EricNewburger said.

More Work Needs to Be Done

The statistics are in line with other studies done on thecountry’s educational attainment, education advocates said. Butwhile applauding the improvement, they noted that more work needsto be done in improving education levels for minorities, andespecially Hispanics.

By race, 84.3 percent of whites had a high school degree in 1999,compared with 77 percent of blacks and 56.1 percent of Hispanics;25.9 percent of whites had at least a bachelor’s degree in 1999,compared with 15.4 percent of blacks and 10.9 percent of Hispanics.

The disparity is even more pronounced with foreign-bornHispanics, said Linda Chavez, president of the Center for EqualOpportunity, a Washington-based group that has been critical ofcurrent bilingual education programs. Forty-four percent offoreign-born Hispanics in the United States had graduated from highschool as of last year, compared with more than 70 percent ofnative-born Hispanics.

Chavez said greater emphasis needs to be placed on highereducation on young Hispanics born in the country, and “moreemphasis on delaying entrance in the job market.”